1954: Sports Illustrated publishes its first issue, Bill Haley and the Comets top the record charts, Grace Kelly and Marlon Brando take home Oscars, Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio, gas tops more 20 cents a gallon and the Chevrolet Corvette enters its second year of production. It’s almost hard to fathom given the more than half century lifespan and now iconic status of the Corvette, but its second year of production was dangerously close to being its final year of production.
The first Corvettes were hand assembled and thus, limited to a production run of just 300 cars, all Polo White over Sportsman Red interiors. In December of 1953, production was moved from Flint, Michigan to a dedicated assembly...

1953 Chevrolet Corvette ‘Noland Adams’
The 1953 Corvette was designed by the very talented Harley Earl, Chevrolet’s chief designer. GM listened to the demands of the GI’s that returned from Europe wanting an American sports car. Production was limited to only 300 units the first year so selling the entire production of the entirely new model was not a problem. The first Corvette reached the end of the assembly line on June 30, 1953. The first 53’ Corvettes were all built by hand, in the back of a customer delivery garage in Flint Michigan. Chevrolet made it clear the new Corvette would only be available to high profile executives and people of power and influence. An example is John Wayne...

1969 all custom pro-touring roadster Camaro, saddled to a complete Art Morrison rolling chassis with Wilwood brakes and coil-over shocks. The power plant is a BRE blown EFI 540cid that will produce 800HP / 1200 ft-lbs of torque to the rear wheels. That power will transfer through a custom built TCI transmission with overdrive from Gear Vendors. The control of this monster is through a one-off custom steering wheel mounted to an Ididit steering column, transferring direction through Borgeson’s stainless steel U-joints & column shaft. This entire package rolls on custom 19” Boze alloys wrapped in Michelin’s Pilot sport tires up front and 20” X 12” rear rims wrapped in wide 335’s.
The interior...

This very-rare Dick Harrell ‘Super Camaro’ was a 396 cubic-inch, 375 horsepower car that was ordered by Dick Harrell and Fred Gibb Chevrolet. It was then converted to a 427 short block. Only 10 of these were built with a Super Camaro package and this is one of only two in this...

Renault 5 Turbo 2
Sparked by one particular spotting (Renault 5 Turbo 2), I decided to bring my camera (and sometimes cell phone camera) along on a couple different trips around the valley, to and from work, etc. over the last week or so. These are some of the random sightings I saw along the...

Starting life as a brand new 1967 427-435HP Tri-Power Coupe, this Corvette was immediately converted to an SCCA A/Production racer by owner Dr. Bill Geen. Greg Pickett then joined together with Dr. Geen to form the Picket Racing Team. They raced in numerous events, including Trans Am and...

2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 spotted at the Scottsdale Pavilions Car Show.Driven by a GM employee and wearing a Michigan manufacturer plate, this 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 was most certainly in the area to be put through it’s paces at GM’s Proving Grounds in Mesa, Arizona. The...

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Unlike most automotive websites, which are focused primarily on one type of automobile, make or model across the nation or even world, Desert-Motors is focused on the regional automotive community; from Italian supercars to custom motorcycles to Japanese compacts.

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